1st gen rear turn signal mod & color change

I added running lights to the turn signals on my 83 Venture. Now when the key is on I have both turn signals are illuminated along with the two bulbs in the tail light housing.

I purchased two new light bases at Auto Zone for about $4.00 each. These are dual filament bases that use an 1157 bulb.

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I used a dremel cut off wheel to remove the two spot welds that hold the base into the reflector housing and removed old single contact base. I lined the filaments up vertically on the bulb base prior to soldering

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New base was a good fit into reflector housing. I then used a high wattage soldering gun to solder the new base to the reflector housing.

I also attached a ground wire to bulb base at one of the solder points.

The light was reattached to the bike. I spliced the new ground wire and the turn signal wire into the existing wires for the old base. The wire for the low wattage side on the new base was tapped into the tail light wire at the pigtail.

The existing lenses for the rear turn signals are amber color. I wanted to have the lenses match the tail light which is red. I used Rit Scarlet clothes dye to accomplish the color change. This was available at local grocery store.

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I put about 1 tablespoon of the dye into an old pan with about 2 quarts of water and boiled the lenses for about 15 minutes (checking often).

The lenses are now a very close match to the tail light color.

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There is also a spray paint available for changing the color of lenses but I couldn't find it locally.

Gary

Very creative Gary, nice job!

I like it.

Good thing it is going to snow tomorrow, Gives me something to work on.